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Food, Farming, Fisheries
Food Safety

Animal feed

Brexit

Introduction

Roughly 5 million EU farmers raise animals for food production with a value of about EUR 130 billion. Every year, they need approximately 450 million tons of feed for their animals. In addition, the 70 million pet owning households in the EU buy roughly 10 million tons of feed for their pets.

There are different types of feed:

  • feed materials
  • feed additives
  • compound feed including pet food
  • medicated feed

At this web section, you'll find the latest information concerning:

The Commission and the EU countries discuss animal nutrition issues in the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed - Animal Nutrition. Click to see the Committee's agendas and reports.

Official Controls

Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules is the legal framework for sampling methods and methods of analysis of feed for control purposes.

Commission Regulation (EC) No 152/2009 of 27 January 2009 laying down the methods of sampling and analysis for the official control of feed establishes the sampling method and the methods of analysis of feed for control purposes.

Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/771 of 3 May 2017 amending Regulation (EC) No 152/2009 as regards the methods for the determination of the levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls updates the analytical requirements for the analysis of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls.

In this Regulation reference is made to the Guidance Document on the Estimation of LOD and LOQ for Measurements in the Field of Contaminants in Feed and Food and a Guidance Document on Measurement Uncertainty for Laboratories performing PCDD/F and PCB Analysis using Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry which have been elaborated by the European Reference Laboratories in the field of contaminants in feed and food.

Report on the relationship between analytical results, measurement uncertainty, recovery factors and the provisions of EU Food and Feed legislation.

In 2013, the sampling procedure has been completely updated by Commission Regulation (EU) No 691/2013 amending Regulation (EC) No 152/2009 as regards methods of sampling and analysis

A guidance document for the implementation of Commission Regulation (EU) No 691/2013 has been elaborated and has been endorsed by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health – section Animal Nutrition.

Related links

Further information

Feed marketing
The rules on the marketing of feed materials and compound feed are established in EC Regulation 767/2009 on the placing on the market and use of feed.
Medicated feed
Medicated feed is a mixture of animal food (feed) and veterinary medicinal product produced under controlled conditions and has the purpose of treating or controlling disease in farmed animals, aquaculture species and pets.
Undesirable substances
The aim of EU legislation on undesirable substances in animal nutrition is to ensure that feed is put into circulation only if of good quality and does not represent any danger to human health, animal health or the environment or do not adverse adversely affect livestock.